In this Month of November, we traditionally remember the Dead. All our family and friends who have gone home to the Lord before us in faith. On All Souls Day, we celebrated our annual Mass of remembrance for all who died and were buried from Holy Trinity Church in the last twelve months.

One of the core beliefs of our Catholic faith is an after-life and the resurrection of the faithful departed.

However, the Sadducees didn’t believe in an after-life or the resurrection of the dead. They used the opportunity to ask Jesus a tricky question to test him. They questioned him on the woman who had been married seven times. They wanted to know whose wife she would be if there was such a thing as resurrection.  Jesus is quick to state that in the afterlife our relationship with each other will be entirely different. First and foremost, our relationship will be with God our father, However, it is worthy of note that he does not say that the special bond that exists between family members in this life will no longer remain.

So much of life after death is a mystery – one of the great mysteries of our faith. Those words of the Profession of Faith can simply fall from our lips without much thought as we recite at Mass ‘I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen’.

November is a suitable time to remember our dead, not with any morbid fear but in the hope of joining them once more in eternal life.

Fr. Gerry